The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

A few weeks back, FOX took the world by storm with the first teaser for their highly anticipated revival/limit-series event: 24: Live Another Day. Going so far as to top trailers for highly anticipated films including Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Transformers: Age of Extinction, all anyone was talking about the Monday after the game was the long-take that ends with everyone’s favorite counter-terrorist agent yelling into the camera and firing a pistol. Realizing how powerful the idea of surprise truly is, last week, with the aid of their broadcast of the Sochi Winter Olympics, NBC revealed plans to restart cult favorite series Heroes with a limited-series event of their own: Heroes Reborn.

Many believe this announcement to be NBC’s attempt to capitalize on the ratings success ABC has seen with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The CW has seen with Arrow… but that’s not the case. Yes, NBC does want a piece of the superhero pie, that’s why they hired Man of Steel writer David S. Goyer to oversee a new adaptation of Constantine, but Heroes Reborn has nothing to do with that craving. In reality, Heroes Reborn is NBC’s attempt to capitalize on a genre FOX realized might be viable: the limited series event.

But there’s a problem with NBC’s belief, and it’s in a misunderstanding of the weight Heroes holds. The only reason most of America was okay with 24 coming to a somewhat rushed conclusion in 2010 was because there was supposed to be a movie on the way. But as is typical in Hollywood, that anticipated blockbuster fell into the fire pit that is development hell, and after re-write after re-write, the decision was finally made to bring Jack back the way he was always meant to be seen, on the small screen (of course Howard Gordon and Kiefer Sutherland both claim the limited event has nothing to do with the film, which is supposedly in active development, but you can bet if LAD fails, the movie will go down with it).

The difference between 24 and Heroes is no one was beating down the door for more Heroes after its finale. When the series, which also concluded in 2010, came to a close, it was done so with dismal ratings. By the time season four ended, audiences had grown tired of Tim Kring’s “LOST with super-powers,” that fact proven no greater than by the poor reception of the man’s next series, Touch, which ironically starred Kiefer Sutherland. Put simply: the only reason NBC would revive Heroes is to see if there’s any validity to FOX’s limited-series experiment.

Here’s what we know about Heroes Reborn: it will air in 2015 and Tim Kring is involved… that’s it. What’s bothersome about the announcement is it’s a step backwards for NBC. Between Fallon taking over The Tonight Show, having the hottest new series on television in The Blacklist and revitalizing the market for live musicals with The Sound of Music, NBC has killed it this season, and one must wonder what led to this decision. Surely there were other ways to go. Why not a Law & Order mini-series? Now that’s a show worthy of a revival, especially when Special Victims Unit is still going as strong as it is. Reviving Heroes now feels rather too little too late. but who knows? Maybe we’re all dead wrong and Heroes Reborn will be the best reboot since Star Trek. Either way, we’ll know for sure in 2015.